Imagine that you’ve been invited to a grand fireworks display that is supposed to last for a solid hour. You finally find a parking place and get to the show, and it starts.

They light one bottle rocket and then announce the show is over.

That’s how I felt at the recent Tomatopalooza at Mobile Botannical Gardens.

Its advertised hours were 9 a.m.-2 p.m. We arrived at the gate at 8:45. The front parking lot was already full, and with nobody there to direct traffic to the lower parking lot, cars were going in all directions.

The gates opened at 9 a.m. and the mass of tomato enthusiasts (probably 100 people at that time) descended upon the 25-by-40 square foot area set up with tomato plants on tables. Mayhem ensued.

Within 45 minutes, the tomato plants were gone. If you were lucky enough to snatch up a few, you had a long wait in the check-out line.

There weren’t nearly enough plants for the amount of buyers who showed up initially, let alone all the ones we passed on the way out who were still trying to get in.

I imagine they were upset that they had wasted gasoline and their time coming to buy plants that were long since gone.

I will pass on the Tomatopalooza next year unless they have more plants, a bigger area to move around in to actually see what you are buying, and someone directing traffic.

LEO PRESNELL

Semmes

Truth is, the Catholic Church respects women

I am writing in response to the Feb. 27 Maura Casey column titled “Catholic women must speak out on widespread use of birth control.” There are so many things wrong with what this lady is saying, I can’t even address them all.

First of all I have to wonder why Ms. Casey’s mother and father, being “devout Catholics,” did not know about the church’s teachings on the use of the “rhythm method,” which would have been the way to handle the mother’s health problems with none of the risks that the pill has with its use. Of course, it would have taken some self control.

Natural family planning is what Catholics use now to hold off having children. It works better than the pill, with no health risks.

The people I know who use this method have the most loving marriages. The men do not treat their wives as sex objects who are there for their personal pleasure anytime they feel like it, and that makes the marriage stronger. They find other ways to show love.

Another point Ms. Casey made is that using birth control makes abortions far less likely. That is not true. In fact, the opposite is true.

Ms. Casey is not a practicing Catholic; she is in opposition with the church.

No one has done more for the betterment of women and no one holds women in higher regard than the Catholic Church.